Meaningful use is providing incentive for hospitals to step up and digitize health information. It’s an admirable step forward for the healthcare industry.

But it’s not enough. Meaningful use does nothing to address the non-clinical paper-glut plaguing healthcare organizations. Most of the paperwork burden in the hospital today will not be eliminated through use of an EHR. Why? Because thousands of administrative forms that require manual information input do not become part of a clinical record. Those purchase requisitions, HR documents and corporate contracts are all necessary on the business side, but by keeping those processes manual, many hospitals are still filling out redundant information on pre-printed forms by hand. The result is not only massive inefficiency, but lots of wasted time and money.
Consider also that an estimated 30% of hospital staff time is spent on administrative activities, most of which is devoted to processing forms.

Wow.

Hospitals used to be five to eight years behind other verticals in the implementation of technology and, thankfully, that gap is closing with the EHR. It is, however, widening in administrative processes which were automated in other vertical industries nearly 15 years ago. Meaningful use will not tame the tornado of non-clinical forms that hospitals use on a daily basis and in mass quantities: The average hospital currently has more than 1,000 forms in use. The situation may not seem dire, but from the standpoints of cost, compliance and policy enforcement, conditions are rapidly deteriorating.

There is no way to accurately track requests in a manual workflow, and surely no way to prove that a purchase or contract was approved if the resulting piece of paper is somehow misplaced. Additionally, manual administrative processes are expensive. The cost of paper, ink, printers, storage, copying, faxing, mailing and staff time must all be considered when evaluating the efficacy of workflow standards. And since many of those urgent HR requests and contract approvals are currently routed hand-to-hand or by a daily mail cart, operational efficiency stands to be drastically improved by automation.

While the technology lag is severe, the good news is that many hospitals are not invested in legacy proprietary systems for administrative tasks. They have the ability to buy and implement the latest web-enabled .net, Windows 7 and Java-based applications available. Many EHR systems can integrate seamlessly with workflow automation tools, as well, allowing hospitals to automate administrative processes in a way that does not compromise, and, in fact, can even enhance, clinical documentation practices.

Many hospitals can expect to save more than $1 million annually by automating administrative workflow. But the benefits reach far beyond savings: compliance and hospital policies will become easier to enforce, patient safety can be improved, and overall efficiency and quality will increase—the promise of a high performance hospital.
Rob Harding is President and CEO of FormFast, a top-ranked provider of electronic workflow solutions. FormFast serves more the 800 hospitals internationally with easy-to-use software that helps healthcare organizations accelerate their progression from time-consuming manual processes to fully automated workflows.

Diabetes mellitus, this is often simply referred to as diabetes. It is a group of metabolic diseases in which an individual has high blood sugar, either because the body does not produce enough insulin, or because cells do not react to the insulin that is produced. This high blood sugar develops the classical symptoms of polydipsia (increased thirst), polyuria (frequent urination), and polyphagia (increased hunger).

Pre-diabetes indicate a condition that occurs when a person's blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough for a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. Many people destined to develop type 2 diabetes spend many years in a state of pre-diabetes which has been termed "America's largest healthcare epidemic."

There are three main types of diabetes:

• Type 1 diabetes: This results from the body's failure to produce insulin, and presently requires the person to inject insulin. It is also referred to as insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, IDDM for short, and juvenile diabetes. Type 1 diabetes mellitus is characterized by loss of the insulin-producing beta cells of the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas leading to insulin deficiency. This type of diabetes can be further classified as immune-mediated or idiopathic.

• Type 2 diabetes: This results from insulin resistance, a condition in which cells fail to use insulin properly, sometimes combined with an absolute insulin deficiency. Type 2 diabetes mellitus is characterized by insulin resistance which may be combined with relatively reduced insulin secretion. The defective responsiveness of Your virgo horoscopes Sun is introverted and analytical, and self-control is the safeguard against your anarchistic tendencies, but excessive restraint yields the exact reverse effect of what is expected. body tissues to insulin is believed to involve the insulin receptor.

Inspirational line

"At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.— Albert Schweitzer"

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
— John Quincy Adams

Life Quotes, Proverbs, and Sayings

"Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as you mind lets you. What you believe, you can achieve. -Mary Kay Ash"

Health Tips

Exercising When Obese

If you are obese, then check with your physician before initiating any exercise program. Our suggestion, search for a low impact aerobic program as a starter.

Fat Free vs. Calorie Free

Just because a product is fat free, doesn't mean it is calorie free. In fact, fat free or reduced fat products can have as many, if not more, calories per serving than regular products. So, yes, you do need to watch your fat intake. But remember that calories count, too.

About Us

Started by a group of young, enthusiastic physicians in the year 1999, Vision Infonet was incorporated in the State of Illinois in 2001. As a vibrant enterprising organization, we began our journey towards the world leadership in providing the IT enabled back-office services to medical facilities.....more